will go over the fiscal cliff. what's your reaction to that? have you heard that -- >> we can confirm that. >> i love john harwood, but luke and i have been reporting the same thing, jonathan, so there. >> okay. so we're going over the cliff? >> apparently. that's the bad news. the good news is, the parameters of a deal are definitely there. as you described, jonathan, the sticking point remains this so-called trigger, the sequester. remember, they agreed upon it last summer in july and august of 2011 when they came to that big debt ceiling deal. if there were no decision on how to cut government spending by now, these draconian cuts, indiscriminate across the board to defense half of it, $500 billion in domestic programs, the other half of it, the other $500 billion would go into effect. and now some want to have that delayed. they want to have it put off. the house of representatives, the leadership there is saying absolutely no way. there are ironies that abound all along here in these negotiations, and a lot of what you see on the surface,